Barbados to Hold Next Climate Vulnerable Forum Presidency with former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed as first CVF-V20 Secretary-General
1 December 2023, DUBAI: Barbados has been selected to host the next presidency of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), a group of 68 developing countries highly vulnerable to climate change, while former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed has been appointed as the CVF’s first Secretary-General.
Barbados is the first ever nation from the Caribbean to chair the CVF while Maldives is among the countries that founded the CVF in 2009 when Nasheed was its head of state. The historic announcements were made today during the World Climate Action Summit on Transforming Climate Finance, hosted by the COP28 presidency.
The summit’s climate finance session featured CVF Chair and Ghana President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, under whose leadership the far-reaching V20 Accra-to-Marrakech Agenda (A2M) was launched, and incoming CVF Chair and Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, whose game-changing Bridgetown Initiative inspired the A2M.
Other leaders at the World Climate Action Summit on finance included CVF leaders Kenya President William Samoei Ruto and Colombia President Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego, COP28 president Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi, France President Emmanuel Macron, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank President Jin Liqun, World Bank President Ajay Banga, and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.
The announcements follow the decision of the CVF to create an independent Secretariat, hosted in Ghana, which currently holds the CVF presidency until mid-2024. The independence decision was taken at the 10th V20 Ministerial in April this year, and endorsed by Heads of Government by September with a CVF Leaders Declaration. The Charter of the independent, inter-government CVF-V20 was approved at the 11th V20 Ministerial meeting in October 2023.
The independent Secretariat, headed by the new position of Secretary-General, assumes all the previous functions of the CVF and the V20 Finance Ministers inclusive of all the bodies operating under them. The Secretariat provides technical expertise and all support services to fulfill the vision of the membership. The September Leaders Declaration established the CVF as a Heads of State and Leaders Forum, with the V20 as its operational and policy lead, under which programs covered arenas such as Bretton Woods engagement, UNFCCC, the UNCBD, and parliaments.
The CVF was founded in November 2009 in the Maldives’ capital of Male’ and an initial nine member countries. The Forum now comprises 68 countries representing 1.74 billion people and USD 3.8 trillion of gross domestic product, whilst only contributing six percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
During the Summit, Ghana President and CVF Chair Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said:“We will now have Mia Mottley coming in as the new chair, we now have an independent Secretariat hosted in Accra, and we have Mohamed Nasheed as the Secretary-General. We are going to have a formidable leadership of the Climate Vulnerable Forum.”
Barbados Prime Minister and incoming CVF Chair Mia Amor Mottley said: “We have enough ideas, where are the decisions going to be made and who will be seated at the table?”
President Nasheed’s appointment as Secretary-General was agreed upon by the current Leadership Troika of Ghana, Bangladesh, and the Marshall Islands, or the current and last two leaders of the Forum. Nasheed will officially become the Secretary-General on 1 January 2024, leading the independent Secretariat of the CVF-V20 based in Accra, Ghana with a regional office in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Reacting to the announcement of his appointment as CVF Secretary-General, CVF founder and former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed said: “Under Ghana’s visionary leadership, the CVF expanded its membership from 55 to 68 member countries. We now represent the interests of 1.7 billion of the world’s most climate vulnerable people. As the independent CVF’s first Secretary-General I’m delighted and beyond eager to take forward the CVF’s urgent agenda.”
The CVF-V20 flagship session titled “Rising With the Tide: Tracking Reforms in the International Financial Architecture for Accelerated Development-Positive Climate Action” will be held at the Ghana Pavilion, Blue Zone B6, Building 73 from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm. See the concept note here and RSVP here.
The CVF will hold a press conference for the new Secretary-General Nasheed at the same pavilion right after the flagship session, from 1:30 to 2:00 pm.
See all CVF-V20 events at COP28 here.
Ghana’s presidency, which began in 2022, saw the V20 Accra to Marrakech Agenda (A2M) define and drive global discussions on international financial reform. Ghana, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka launched the first three Climate Prosperity Plans. The V20 worked closely with the German G7 presidency to launch the Global Shield against Climate Risks. Under Ghana’s leadership, the V20 established a pioneering subgroup of Central Bank Governors working on climate and monetary policy in the 2023 October ministerial dialogue.
The CVF commissioned a global NDC assessment and published the third Climate Vulnerability Monitor, while the V20 published a trailblazing debt review as well as a historic loss and damage report. The V20 established an office in Washington, D.C., and is working on establishing its presence in Beijing. The V20 has been invited to observe the G21 Sustainable Finance Working Group by its incoming chair Brazil, and continues to campaign for recognition as an Official IMF Group in the International Monetary Fund.
CONTACT
Paul Roberts: [email protected], +960 765 4337
Denise Fontanilla: [email protected], +63 917 851 4890
ABOUT THE CVF and V20
The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) is an international partnership of countries highly vulnerable to a warming planet. The V20 Finance Ministers is a dedicated cooperation initiative of economies systematically vulnerable to climate change. Ghana is the current Chair of the CVF and the V20 Finance Ministers. Both the CVF and V20 are composed of the same 68 countries, representing 1.74 billion people and USD 3.8 trillion in GDP. Their members are:
Africa & Middle East
Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Ghana (Chair), Guinea, Jordan*, Kenya, Lebanon, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Palestine**, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Yemen.
*Pending further discussions
**As a UN non-member observer state
Asia-Pacific
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Fiji, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Vietnam.
Latin America & Caribbean
Barbados, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haïti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago.
ABOUT THE INCOMING CVF CHAIR, PRIME MINISTER MIA MOTTLEY
H.E. Mia Amor Mottley became the first woman prime minister of Barbados in 2018 and also serves as the Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs and Investment. She was co-chair of the WB and IMF Development Committee from late 2020 to 2021. She launched the influential Bridgetown Initiative, named after the country’s capital, in July 2022, and updated it to Bridgetown Initiative 2.0 in April of this year, before she co-convened the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact in Paris last June.
ABOUT THE CVF SECRETARY-GENERAL, PRESIDENT MOHAMED NASHEED
H.E. Mohamed Nasheed became the Maldives’ first democratically elected President from 2008 to 2012 and Speaker of the People’s Majlis, the Maldives’ parliament, from 2019 to mid-November 2023. In 2009, the same year he founded the CVF, he held the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting to call for stronger action at the Copenhagen climate summit.
ENDS
Clip For Announcement
Full Segment, PM Mottley
Full Segment, President Akufo-Addo